Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the total value of the assets in the UK belonging to sanctioned Russian citizens.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
Between February and October 2022, £18.39 billion in frozen funds were reported to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) as being held or controlled on behalf of an individual or entity designated under the Russia sanctions regime. This is in addition to frozen funds reported to OFSI as part of the 2021 Frozen Asset Review, which totalled £44.5 million under the Russia regime. These figures are provided in aggregate so as not to disclose the value of any funds held by particular individuals. HM Treasury does not break down reported assets in the manner requested.
Each year, OFSI undertakes a review of frozen assets as a result of UK financial sanctions legislation. The value of assets reported to OFSI as part of the 2022 Frozen Asset Review will be published in OFSI’s 2022-2023 Annual Review, in Autumn 2023.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish the names of all those in the UK who were listed as agents or informers of the former German Democratic Republic Ministry of State Security (Stasi).
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
It is a longstanding principle that the Government will neither confirm nor deny allegations, assertions or speculation about UK intelligence agencies’ operations. Confirming or denying sensitive details about their work could reveal methods and techniques, undermining their ability to keep the country safe.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of how many working hours have been spent on policing issues raised by hunt saboteurs in each of the last five years; and how this is broken down by each police force in England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office does not collect data on the impact of police resourcing in pursuit of hunt saboteurs.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the cost of policing issues related to pursuing hunt saboteurs in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office does not collect data on the impact of police resourcing in pursuit of hunt saboteurs.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government which honey producers have been prosecuted in each of the past five years for misrepresenting the honey they have sold.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Local Authorities (LAs) are requested to submit details of prosecutions they have made to the Food Standards Agency. In the last five years the Government has not been made aware of any prosecutions of honey producers misrepresenting honey they have sold.
Responsibility for assessing business compliance with the majority of food legislation rests with LAs. They will consider any areas of non-compliance with food law and take appropriate enforcement action in line with a hierarchy, risk-based approach to ensure the business takes the necessary steps to achieve compliance. Each situation will be judged on its own merits by the relevant LA to determine the proportionate course of action.
The Honey (England) Regulations 2015 lay down strict rules that honey must comply with in terms of quality and compositional criteria. Regulation 19 applies, with modifications, section 10 of the Food Safety Act 1990 to enable Improvement Notices to be served on a Food Business Operator where a LA has reasonable grounds for believing that they have not complied with the requirements of the legislation. Improvement notices should provide a roadmap to compliance and would be issued as part of the escalation of enforcement in line with the LA’s hierarchy of enforcement.
Honey fraud is taken very seriously and will always be fully investigated. For example, allegations in the media that a small number of specific blended honeys sold in the UK were fraudulent have been fully investigated by the relevant LAs and concluded that there was insufficient evidence to indicate fraud or non-compliance. The Government is confident the honey regulations and enforcement of those regulations are fit for purpose.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what tests government agencies conduct on imported honey.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Local Authorities (LAs) are responsible for enforcement of the honey regulations, including in relation to honey imported into the UK. Honey is considered a product of animal origin and is also subject to additional checks and testing by Port Health Authorities on entry into the UK.
Honey is a complex natural product, meaning analysis can often be challenging. No single test can definitively determine a honey’s authenticity, but there are a range of different analytical methods and techniques available to help ensure compliance with the Honey (England) Regulations 2015. By law public analysts are responsible for deciding which tests to use but honey importers and packers will also use a range of testing methods themselves to ensure what they are buying is authentic and complies with UK rules. Tests range from simple chemical testing to isotope ratio analysis and pollen analysis to more complex techniques using nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectroscopy. Wherever possible any method used to determine honey authenticity should be internationally recognised and validated.
In some instances, LAs will use a weight of evidence approach when assessing if honey is compliant with UK rules ensuring a robust opinion that is not simply based on the result of one test but on a toolbox of multiple analytical tools, input data, product traceability and record reviews.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps, if any, they are taking to stop (1) the importation, and (2) the sale, of adulterated honey.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This Government takes any type of food fraud very seriously, including honey adulteration. Defra works closely with enforcement authorities who are responsible for enforcing our honey laws, the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) National Food Crime Unit, Food Standards Scotland’s (FSS) Food Crime and Incidents Unit, local and port health authorities, industry and others on investigating any potential fraud issues raised, to ensure honey sold in the UK is not subject to adulteration, meets our high standards and maintains a level playing field between honey producers. Imported honey is subject to additional checks as a product of animal origin and routine testing is carried out to ensure that honey entering the UK meets the required rules.
The Government has a programme of research dedicated to honey authenticity where it is actively working to provide information and guidance to those carrying out monitoring and enforcement checks on honey, to protect consumers and legitimate businesses. This programme focuses on disseminating information on honey authenticity, supporting work on analytical testing methods, ensuring their fitness for purpose and standardising approaches.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of requiring honey labels to reflect all the countries of origin of the honey.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
All honey on sale in England, regardless of where it comes from, must comply with the Honey (England) Regulations 2015. The general requirement in regulation 17 of the Honey (England) Regulations 2015 is that honey cannot be sold in England unless the country of origin where the honey has been harvested is indicated on the label.
However, for reasons of practicality special provisions apply to ‘blended’ honeys where honey producers can opt for alternative wording indicating that the honey is a blend from more than one country. The mix of different honeys in blended honeys may change frequently throughout the year, depending on availability, price, and seasonality of the various types of honey. Requiring producers to change their labels for every alteration would place additional burdens and likely lead to increased prices and packaging waste.
The Government keeps all its laws under constant review as part of its commitment to carry out post implementation reviews. We will consider the need for further labelling measures as part of the next review of the honey regulations which is due by 2025.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with (1) the Country Land and Business Association, (2) the National Farmers' Union of England and Wales, and (3) other relevant countryside bodies, about drone corridors.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Drone corridors do not currently exist as a defined term or policy.
Current work to further the potential of drone operations is focused on enabling Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations and the integration of new airspace users - including drones - into the UK’s airspace.
Current airspace change policy (the CAP 1616 process) requires that any permanent change is done following consultation with affected stakeholders, including those on the ground. This CAP 1616 process is required for any change to airspace design, including in the event of the proposed establishment of corridors to support drone operations. Any permanent proposed change would also need to be consistent with the overall developing Airspace Modernisation Strategy - widely consulted upon and due to be published in the coming weeks.
Project Skyway is a project that is part of a UKRI Challenge Fund, the Future Flight Challenge (FFC). Project Skyway has received public funding and has been developed and progressed by private companies. Any drone demonstration project under the FFC must comply with current regulation, and the outputs of all FFC projects will then be used to inform detailed policy and further regulation. The guiding input principles have been to develop the industry by bringing together diverse groups of stakeholders such as local authorities, technology innovators and end users such as the NHS. The projects have been designed to push regulatory boundaries to enable the industry to provide the resultant connectivity, economic and environmental benefits to the UK.
Government is engaging with local authorities to discuss these new flight technologies. Many FFC projects include local authorities, and Project Skyway includes Oxfordshire County Council, Coventry Country Council and Reading Borough Council.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with local authorities about drone corridors.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Drone corridors do not currently exist as a defined term or policy.
Current work to further the potential of drone operations is focused on enabling Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations and the integration of new airspace users - including drones - into the UK’s airspace.
Current airspace change policy (the CAP 1616 process) requires that any permanent change is done following consultation with affected stakeholders, including those on the ground. This CAP 1616 process is required for any change to airspace design, including in the event of the proposed establishment of corridors to support drone operations. Any permanent proposed change would also need to be consistent with the overall developing Airspace Modernisation Strategy - widely consulted upon and due to be published in the coming weeks.
Project Skyway is a project that is part of a UKRI Challenge Fund, the Future Flight Challenge (FFC). Project Skyway has received public funding and has been developed and progressed by private companies. Any drone demonstration project under the FFC must comply with current regulation, and the outputs of all FFC projects will then be used to inform detailed policy and further regulation. The guiding input principles have been to develop the industry by bringing together diverse groups of stakeholders such as local authorities, technology innovators and end users such as the NHS. The projects have been designed to push regulatory boundaries to enable the industry to provide the resultant connectivity, economic and environmental benefits to the UK.
Government is engaging with local authorities to discuss these new flight technologies. Many FFC projects include local authorities, and Project Skyway includes Oxfordshire County Council, Coventry Country Council and Reading Borough Council.